12/3/16

Dharma Talk, November 28. 2016: Understanding the Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana

Riverside Chan Meditation Group
Christmas party is being planned for December 17, 2016 over at Gilbert’s place.
For planning purposes, please let us know if you are interested in attending.
Thanks.So far, we have 1 confirm and 1
inquiry as to the start time.

Consider
volunteering to do a lecture summary. It is a great way to deepen your
practice.

This
transcription is work in progress. It is transcribed as recorded and no
professional editing was performed.

Tonight is
November 28, 2016 our regular Monday night class. Hello to all of you and to
all of those listening by way of the internet. Tonight’s class is kind of a
recap of a lot of things that we’ve been learning throughout this year and also
what I’ve been teaching at various chapters. It’s more contemplation rather
than cogitation in terms of how you should approach what I am saying. It is to
take what I am saying and play “what if”
with it and see how it comes out.

The ending
of the Diamond
Sutra says that “All you should think
of this fleeting world: is a bubble on the stream, a flash of lightning in the summer
cloud, a dewdrop on a leaf, a morning star, an illusion, a phantasm, and a
dream.” It’s one of my favorite quotes of any Buddhadharma because it looks
directly into the mind, looks directly into what we call the Tathagatagarbha, which is the Mahayana concept of
Buddha-nature or Buddha-mind. It ceases notions by not putting any validity on
the appearance of the phenomena. And when I say “not putting any validity,”
what I mean is by not putting any kind of validity in seeking an answer in that
realm of samsaric existence and things that cogitate and try to sort things out.

One of my students
from back East sent me a very long article that discuss the Quantum Physicists’
view point on Shunyata or emptiness. He too is a Quantum Physicist so he
relishes into sending me these things and that there’s actually this formula
there that they had developed - an algebraic formula to stand for emptiness. I
relish poking back at all that and saying it was like the artist Escher drawing
a hand that’s drawing a hand. Where can you find any kind of validity in that
formula? It is because the formula is phenomena as well. If we look at things
from this view point, we can’t obtain this transcendent wisdom. It's a funny
thing because ironically, there's no wisdom to attain. And we have to come to a
realization that there is no wisdom to attain. Otherwise, we just continue to
be shadow puppets in the samsaric realm.

It was also
interesting in that article where they are quoting Einstein about reaching out
towards these unknowns and saying that it’s like “Knowing the Mind of God.” And
I kind of poked at that too and said, “Well, you know, he's just hedging his
bets” that maybe you know, if it's not nihilistic… You know, he doesn’t want to
go to the nihilistic side, so he wants to be able to say that “what's there is
God.” And because he can't quite understand, I can’t afford me to see that kind
of a quote from Einstein.

Student:
What did he say?

Gilbert:
He said “Knowing the mind of God.” So it’s kind of like saying “well, maybe
there’s a God there.” But as an advanced scientist that he was, it’s kind of disappointing
that he was verging on this realm of religious explanation for things without
any kind of substantiation for that position to be able to support it, so we
have to have a formula for the mind of God.

My point
is not to make fun of these noble scientists as much as to look at it and say that
from their viewpoint. It's difficult to fathom shunyata or emptiness because
they lack the realizations to be able to do that. The formulas can only take them
so far. It’s equivalent to the finger pointing at the moon. It's not the moon but
it is simply the finger and pointing at the direction, which is kind of an
interesting thing because it segues into what I want to talk about - merging of
the Sino-fication of Buddhism in China. That means that took on the Chinese
flavor, but on the other hand it maintained the integrity of the Indian
Scriptures. It’s a very interesting approach to how things work. They accepted
that because of the idea of the Tao - this Tao that really doesn't have an
explanation to it. It can’t be explained at all. As a result of that, the
Chinese were able to embrace the Mahayana teachings and so we will get there in
the moment.

But when
we see this world as an illusion, as impermanent, the Diamond Sutra shows us a way
to be able to [let's say] ungrasp this as a concept, as it talks about the
uncountable – “if you have the Ganges River, and for all the grains of sand in
the Ganges River there’s a Ganges River.” It ceases something that can be
counted. It ceases something that can be done and it seeks it further and says that
“for all of those there’s a treasure chest, and for those treasure chest that
are given to the poor, that would be great merit. But it’s not as great of a merit
as reciting four lines of the Sutra.”

And therein
lies the puzzle. It cannot be explained in words. No matter how long I talk, even
if I was a congressman doing a filibuster in Congress, I still would not be
able to explain that. It's something that you have to look into and say “What
does that mean - four lines of the Sutra versus all these uncountable
treasures?” Why is that? Why is that important? Essentially what the Diamond
Sutra does is it goes beyond the idea of notions. It goes beyond saying that
even the Buddha can be identified by any marks. There are so many parts of it that
would just simply be presented in a way that it cannot be played like cheap
music. It finishes off and says like you can take it from here.

The
problem the Diamond Sutra is trying to get to is seeing through this conditioned
existence. Does anybody know what that
means when we say “conditioned existence”?

Student: Phenomena?

Gilbert:
Phenomena and why do they call it conditioned existence?

Student:
Paticcasamuppada.

Gilbert: Because
causes and conditions never fail. Essentially it arises in accordance with causes
that came before it, therefore it’s conditioned existence - for this, this
would not have happened.

In the Diamond
Sutra, what it does it says is one from a position of the conditioned existence
cannot penetrate because that is a conditioned existence in and of itself; that
we have the move beyond that, transcend. And that's where the word “transcend”
comes from, is that there's a transcendence that is not of words and phrases. It
is the understanding of how mind works. I talked so many times about
Paticcasamuppada – causes and conditions never fail. It’s saying that this is
mind and seeing it in this way. So what we have to do is what the ancient Masters
say “Turn the mind's eye inward” to look. But to me, I would say this introspection
that we do has really no direction to it. There's no turning it and reversing the
“eyes.”

It is just
like what Baizhang
said; “It’s right before my very eyes. I now know that my nostrils point downwards.”
Looking at the obvious in a way that is completely stripped of any notions. And
when we abandon notions or concepts, the only thing that's left is the
awareness of the mind. When we meditate, that’s all we’re doing when meditating,
is just letting the mind rest in awareness. Awareness is not thinking. Awareness
is simply being aware of what is arising in mind. And when we continually
practice it in our daily life, not just simply sitting on the cushion but in
our daily life what is arising in this moment, what is arising: I sense that
anger coming up! I sense this emotion! I sense that jealousy, impatience, then
we can sense those things and we can let them go so that we can harmonize.

Today I
was talking to one of my clients who was unable to get out of this car. He had
a stroke and was very sick. And so he wanted to retain me and of course I went
out to his car. He is very very sick and he’s smoking a cigarette. Not only was
he smoking a cigarette but he’s blowing the smoke out the window where there I
stand. And I can feel in myself impatience arising and kind of a sense of
indignity. But then I really had reversed that and understood that that was arising,
I was able to deal with the situation in spite of his unknowing efforts to
really angering a person. It didn’t work and so I was able to endure that and
understanding that was impermanent, but I didn't need to help him.

When we
look at the world in this way, we abandon the idea of the sense of the self; that
we have to protect this with self-love and self-conceit, and egocentrics that
we have that dictates what we do in the next moment, what we say and what we
think. When we back away from all of that, rather than turn the mind’s eye
inward, I see it more like backing away of the chamber of consciousness and
looking from afar into the chamber. This chamber of consciousness is the
fluctuating part of the mind that produces phenomena. It is why we cannot say
something is sacred or profane because all of these things are produced by the mind
impeccably.

When the
mind is seeing in this way and this component of this chamber consciousness that’s
there, then the mind is settled. It sees things in the proper way from the
proper view point, which is no viewpoint at all. It is simply merged with the
environment. Not as a unified mind because that doesn't take it far enough but essentially
just sees everything as it is. It is clear about it and this clarity is kind of
like this Saran wrap that one could see around the phenomena. But the Saran
wrap is really shunyata – emptiness. It is not an application or a thin application
of another layer of self but it is in fact the Self-nature of mind. As we begin
to practice in this way, we practice Self-nature of mind. We practice it in the
way that enables us to move past illusions. We see emotions for what they are -
cravings, or discriminations like the ripples on the surface of the water.

Viewed with
the Right View, there's this direct observation or contemplation. This is what
leads to the realization that this mind is actually the creator of all
phenomena. In this way what the Madhyamika School did [through Nāgārjuna] was
the refutation of time and space, to see things as they are, as he understood
in the Middle Way - the way between reality and consciousness and the
non-reality to develop the Two Truths Doctrine.

In the pontification
(?) of the Buddhadharma, the Chinese put an interesting flavor on it. In the course
of evolving, via the Yogacara School and the Madhyamika School, which was called
the Tathagatagarbha. The Tathagatagarbha is a very interesting
one because there's no historical pinpointing that there is a scroll called the
Tathagatagarbha. In fact it’s
apparent in the Sutras, in the later sutras, that this idea of Buddha-nature is
present. The Chinese did a very interesting thing in terms of really drawing out
the essence of this stuff, the Tathagatagarbha
doctrine which says that everything is the Self-nature of mind and there's
nothing that is separate from it.

This is where
the Diamond Sutra was pointing to. When the early sutras came, there were hints
of it that were there and it began to be drawn out clearer and clearer with
different notions. Not necessarily rejecting what was previous doctrines but [I
think] clarifying the doctrines in a way in which they were able to be seen in
the proper understanding, in terms of what was meant and what was not meant by them.

And it really
keeps coming back to mind, mind, mind and in terms of whatever is seen is mind.
Whatever is thought is mind. Whether it's something good or bad, those
impressions also comes from mind. They cannot be separated from the mind. You
cannot separate out good and the bad of mind. It just simply is. If you put
more good in than bad, good will prevail. It's a wonderful doctrine because it
clearly shows that if you put the effort in [let’s say] to meditate, you will get
realizations. If you put the effort into the environment, the environment will
improve. If you do things in a positive way, positive outcomes will result from
that. And we’re clear about it and by doing that, it enables us to set a course
in our life that we’re able to, via the power of our vows, improve the humanity,
to uplift humanity and create a Pureland here until such time that the last
illusory sentient being is delivered.

It's a
very interesting one because we talk about things in a very strange way - about
delivering illusory sentient beings. But we say it in that way because we know
that all things, via the Diamond Sutra, are illusions. Nevertheless, we
understand from that very basic tenets of Shakyamuni Buddha that the Noble
Truths that there’s suffering. We also understand that the deliverance of
suffering is to remove ignorance. That once ignorance is removed, then one sees
that all things are created by the mind. When we see things in this way, it's
much clearer. We want to [kind of] reject that. There's a part of us that
doesn't want to let go. It doesn’t walk around and say “you’re an illusion, you’re
a dream, you’re this, you’re that, and my mind is my mind.” And it fails to take
that extra step back to see that even those are notions and the ideas that are coming
up in your mind.

But if you
do that and you do it continuously, the mind resolves by itself. In fact
there's no resolution to the mind; it's just simply a revelation that this is
the way the mind works. And then there's liberation because liberation is that
one can freely apply the mind to any situation without worrying about what’s
going to happened to your “self” in that
situation. It just does what needs be done. There's a very incredible wondrous
function of the mind, very dynamic. It doesn't look at things and say “oh, if
everything is an illusion, there's nothing to do.” We might as well go out and
have a lot of fun and go in that in that way.

But that
is not the doctrine. The doctrine is seen through this transcendent wisdom and
the ultimate outcome of this transcendent wisdom is this unbridled compassion -
an incredible compassion that permeates the mind, drives the function of the mind,
and wants to put everything back into balance in the mind and sees things in
this way. There's an interest in the Self-nature of mind but mind itself
resolves itself, in terms of constantly adjusting through karma [what the Chinese
call the Ili(?)] which means kind of like payback or retribution. This
retribution is there. We understand that’s the function of the mind simply
because it is the nature of it terms of wanting this balance.

So as we
begin to see the mind in this way, we're no longer acting in a state of
confusion. We see the mind exactly as it is, as it is functioning. We want to
think that our mind, as an individual integrated unit, is separate from
everyone else’s mind. But it cannot be that way. It appears within mind but
mind is just mind. We no longer attempt to try to define it in words or to put
it in a mathematical formula. We abandon those notions and by abandoning them, is
called “jumping into the void.” Sounds very scary but it isn’t. It is simply “just
letting go.”

I remember
when I was a young boy learning how to swim. I go to the deep end and I go “I’m
in the deep end.” And I go “One of these days I’m going to let go of the side.”
Eventually I did but I would be in the deep end holding onto the floater, so
I’m in the deep end but not really because I haven’t let go. So you have to take
that leap off that hundred-foot pole. Every day you do that. Every day you work
on this jumping thought, letting go; even if you have to pry your fingers off one
by one. You just keep looking into mind – “What is this? What is mind?” and
everyday wanting to know the answer. When I say “know the answer,” there’s a
different way of knowing the answer; that every day you want the answer to be revealed.
But you look at the world around and see if it doesn't fit.

The one of
the things that really interested me in Buddhadharma was it fit better than any
other kind of philosophy, religion, or anything as to what happens in the world,
and I am uncomfortable with that. But also because I am comfortable and have accepted
that, there's times when mind reveals itself and gives you faith to continue on,
gives you faith to teach others. Why? Because there's peace there, an incredible
peace and you want to share that with others. There’s an incredible liberation
and not holding on to things and when I hold on to things, I suffer. When I
don't hold on to them, I don’t suffer. Any questions so far?

I want to
read a little bit from the introduction to this one treatise entitled “Understanding the Awakening of Faith in the
Mahayana.” Have any of you heard that before or read that?

Student:
You read that to us over a year ago.

Gilbert:
Ok, you remember. Good! In any case, this Understanding the Awakening of Faith in
the Mahayana is a treatise that was attributed to… let me see if I can say his
name right, Aśvaghoṣa. But it
really wasn't his work. It was probably the works of his students that did that.
It isn’t… at least the historians don't believe that it was an Indian Scripture.
They believe it was Chinese in nature. They have ways of looking at it in terms
of how the text reads and some of the concepts that were in there, whether or
not those are Indian concepts and Indian examples versus Chinese examples. But
most of the historians attributed to work arising out of China. It probably is
and it's an interesting work in terms of its comprehensiveness in discussing
the Tathagatagarbha and the Self-nature of mind.

I was
reading this master’s introduction to this treatise and I found something that
was interesting, was that a lot of what he was saying in this introduction, was
what I had just spoken to in the Washington DC Chapter of Dharma Drum. It was an
and interesting experience so I'm reading this Master’s words, recalling those
were the words I was using just a couple of days before that time period. Not
that I'm as good as this master but there's a certain mind information that's
there, and the sharing of the Bodhi Heart that enables us to communicate in
this way. I'm going to read a little bit
about the introduction and…

Student:
(barely audible)

Gilbert: This
is the introduction to this person’s commentary on the treatise. This Master's
name is Chi Hoi. Hope I didn’t butcher his name.

Student:
Is he like contemporary?

Gilbert: Fairly
contemporary. It’s contemporary and what he did was he went through and did the
commentary using other people’s commentary on this particular Sutra. So it's an
interesting thing because it all comes to this point of directing to the mind.
Let me read a little bit about it and maybe you can get a feel for it. He says:

Mahayana or “Great
Vehicle” refers to the scope of Buddhist Dharma that one believes in. Speaking
of Dharma, it is just the mind of sentient beings, meaning the essential nature
of the sentient beings’ minds.

So when he
talks about the Dharma (Teachings), it’s just this mind of the sentient being,
just the mind that you’re using right now.

This mind then encompasses all the physical
and mental events (dharmas) of the
secular world and for transcending this world, completely contained in three greats
– embodiment, characteristics and application. Hence the nature of this mind is
referred to as “great.”

We’re
talking about not consciousness but we’re talking about mind - beyond what can
be held in your cranium. The first one is embodiment and he said:

1. Embodiment: from the perspective of
time, the nature of mind has no beginning in the past, and thus is non-originating;
it also has no end in the future, and thus is non-ceasing. This greatness in embodiment
which is fundamentally inherent in all sentient beings.

He’s
saying all of these is already there. All of these is precisely there. We can't
see it because we see our birth, we see our impending death, and we want
something to hold onto. But as one master said “it's like trying to hold on to
seaweed in the ocean, or foam in the ocean to try to support yourself. You
cannot support it in that way so you have to see the things clearly.

The second
one is characteristics. He says:

2. Characteristics: from the
perspective of space, the nature of mind broadly encompasses all ten directions,
completely containing all the merits that can be measured by the sands of the
River Ganges. Whatever bodily form that is required to enlighten a certain
person, one may appear exactly in that body to teach the Dharma to that person.
This is greatness in characteristics, or manifestation, which is fundamentally
inherent in all sentient beings.

Again
looking at it and seeing all these characteristics in everything is just mind. And
you see, he also alludes to the Diamond Sutra [with the sand] and looking at it
from this viewpoint of saying that all of these merits measured by the sands of
the River Ganges.

The third
is the application:

3. Application: from the perspective of
both time and space, the nature of mind is capable of transforming and creating
the karmic cause and fruit of defilement or purity of the ten worlds, and capable
of giving rise to suffering and happiness. If this mind reaches the realization
of dependent origination without inherent existence, then it may turn its back
on the Saha world and join the enlightened; turn over defilement to achieve purity;
and thus attain nirvana. This is called greatness in application. Therefore,
the nature of sentient beings’ mind is strong indeed, and thus referred to as “great.”

So this idea
of application showing everything in… I can't say in this world because it's
beyond this world. Worlds, worlds, worlds, and universes, is created by the
mind. Created and there's a karmic cause and fruit of defilement or purity as I
was saying. It can be something that is positive or negative but we understand
that and all of these things come from mind. And then he said that “if this mind
reaches the realization of dependent origination without inherent existence,”
so he’s talking about here if the mind reaches this realization of
Paticcasamuppada. Not a book-learning understanding of it, but realization of
it where one sees everything so perfectly in its place.

One Master
equated it to… He had an experience when he was urinating outside on a moonlit
night and seeing the individual drops of urine streaming in the moonlight, kind
of like a strobe effect. It is this understanding. Even in the mundane world,
the ordinary world, it contains this wondrous function of the mind. So all one
has to do is bring the consciousness in accord with mind via Paticcasamuppada –
causes and conditions never fail, and this dependent origination is realized.
When that is realized, mind is resolved. It's not so hard to understand this. It's
just in the doing that we have to continually remind ourselves to practice on a
moment-to-moment basis.

Vehicle indicates that this mind alone is a
means of conveyance.

Think
about this; “vehicle means that the mind alone is a means of conveyance.” There's
nothing outside the mind that can bring it to mind. The mind itself is that. So
instead of trying to fight and try to dispel notions, discourage notions,
reject notions, or except notions, we just simply see “mind is mind.” It is a conveyance.
The transcendent wisdom is clarified in the Heart Sutra – “there is no wisdom
nor any attainment;” that is the transcendent wisdom. So the transcendent
wisdom is just that, seeing things in this way - no increase nor decrease. The mind
cannot increase nor decrease. We do not try to measure things from time and
space.

This mind, with complete equality in
its nature, conveys all Buddhas from the sea of life and death to the other
shore, enabling them to attain bodhi and
nirvana. All Bodhisattvas are conveyed by this nature of mind to widely
cultivate the myriads of practice,
…

So all Bodhisattvas
are conveyed from this. The conveyance is the transcendent wisdom.

…seeking the path to Buddhahood above
on the one hand, and enlightening the sentient beings below on the other hand.
The sentient beings are conveyed by this nature of mind to relinquish the cycles
of life and death.

As I practice, I practice to carry out the
vows. The final vow is to attain Supreme Buddhahood but the very first vow is
to deliver sentient beings. These work simultaneously. It is the vow to deliver
sentient beings that fulfills the last vow of attaining Supreme Buddhahood.

The mind fundamentally possesses this
function of conveyance.

It’s fundamental.
It is its foundation. It has it in this way. But because of our ignorance, we
can’t see that.

Therefore, this nature of mind is the
common denominator that relates all karmic causes to karmic fruits for both
uninitiated and saints, toward delusion and enlightenment.

So the mind,
if we’re going to use it as a method, as a mathematical formula, would be the
common denominator in a fraction. The phenomena would be the numerator and it’s
constantly changing. But the denominator does not change. It always stays there.
What we try to do is flip it over and instead of seeing 1/4, we see a 4/1. It
cannot be this way. When we turn the mind's eye inward, then we see the
fraction as it should be set out – everything, all phenomena belongs to mind -
mind is the common denominator. Phenomena comes and goes, comes and goes; mind
is not inhibited or prevented from coming and going. It precisely enables it to
come and go in accordance with causes and conditions. And this happens whether
you're an uninitiated or a totally ignorant person, or a Bodhisattva. There’s
no difference.

Hence it is referred to in this Discourse
as the “embodiment of the great overall aspect of the entire objective world.”
Further distressing passions are, in fact, bodhi;
and life and death are but nirvana. Suppose
a person, who usually commits various evil deeds, suddenly becomes completely
enlightened? He makes good effort to right the wrongs he has done, and carries
out numerous good deeds. Then good and evil all belong to this person. It is
not as if there is a good person aside from the evil one. That is why there is
an idiom saying: “Put down the butcher’s knife, become a Buddha right where you
stand.” Therefore, the nature of sentient being’s mind constitutes the very
meaning of Mahayana.

“Therefore
the nature sentient being’s mind constitutes the very meaning of Mahayana” -nothing
to pick up; nothing to put down. It just is in this way. If one looks into this,
this point directly to the Self-nature of mind. This is the Tathagatagarbha in
terms of looking at it and seeing how things work. It is [to me] the refinement
from the Abhidharma to Yogacara School, Madhyamika School, and the Chinese School
of Tien-Tai, Huayin, as well as Confucianism and Taoism. All of these is formed
so that one can see perfectly, precisely how mind works. Knowing that, there's
nothing else.

That’s it
for tonight. Is there any question, confusion? No? Okay, we’ll take our break.